25 September 2014
I collected my guests an proceeded onto Pretoriouskop camp
where we had a brief rest before heading out to see what we could find.
We headed out on Napi where we spent a hour and a half with
7 elephant bulls who at one stage where
5m away from our vehicle, they then walked parallel with us for over 5km. it
was a superb sighting with ship mountain and the setting sun as a
backdrop. It was one of my best elephant
sightings yet. Just before camp we got 2 male lions snoozing.
26 September 2014
Today we had phenomenal sightings of rhino with a total of
17 spotted. Along the sabie the elephants herds were prolific as well as the
buffalo.
We also came across a hippo carcass by the river with 6
lions feeding on it. Suddenly a much larger male arrived on the scene and
chased all the others off the carcass.
It has been great so far, we will see what awaits us next!
On the sundowner drive my guests had a amazing time spotting
porcupine, genets, bushbabies, civet cat, hyena and two great sightings of the
sabi river lion prides.
27 September 2014
Today we journeyed north, our destination was Tshokwane
about 46km from Skukuza.
General game on the way was great including a herd of about
30 Kudu, a banded mongoos family was observed for 30 min, buffalo and elephant.
After breakfast at Tshokwane we carried on a little further
north where we came across a 12 strong lion pride attempting to kill a zebra
which they failed. The pride then joined by some 7 cubs who unbeknown to us had
been sleeping in the river below. It was a fantastic sighting.
We drove slowly back to camp with excellent general game
sightings and the highlight being a pack of wild dogs resting in the shade.
28 September 2014
Today the rain didn’t affect our sightings as we spotted
superb leopard, rhino, buffalo and elephant. With one species short of the
magnificent 7 we are hoping for a sighting of the slender feline (cheetah)
tomorrow!
29 September 2014
Driving out this morning in pouring rain I was a little
apprehensive about sightings but it turned out to be our best day! To sum it up
we got 18 rhino, 3 herds of 200+ buffalo, 3 magnificent leopard sightings and
elephants everywhere as well as brilliant bird sightings. To top it all at the
end we saw our resident white buffalo right next to the road!
30 September 2014
If one believes in fate then it has occurred 2 days in a row.
Due to the fact that my one guest had to move to another camp I have been
leaving at different times for the safaris. Yesterday the leopard sighting was
perfect timing and todays “operation cheetah” was no different. When my college
called in a cheetah sighting we were still at breakfast. On route to the
sighting it came across that the cheetah had gone! My heart sank and so did my
guests. Suddenly 2km from the original sighting popped out 3 beautiful male
cheetahs (known as the 3 brothers) it
was the last species for us to accomplish our “magnificent 7” and to top it all off for the first 30 minutes we had them all to
ourselves. It was truly one of my best cheetah sightings of 19 years doing
safaris in Kruger. Miraculously my guest Gary picked them up on return to camp
5 hours later where they had moved 3km north.
The day was so focused on the cheetah that we kind of forgot
all our other magnificent sightings of elephant, buffalo, rhino, and a
magnificent sable bull.
Timing wise today was epic!
31 September 2014
Our final short morning drive was very relaxed and topped
our birding list to 66! The guests left Kruger very happy having seen the
magnificent 7 and had a fantastic time!
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